Police say AT&T store robberies appear unrelated

Police officials say that robberies at two south Montgomery County AT&T stores that occurred within a month and six miles of each other are not connected.

Four Houston men, Adrian Thedford, 22, Leonard Bledsoe, 24, Lance Dobbins, 35, and Gregory Portis, 22, were booked into the Montgomery County Jail Sunday after allegedly robbing an AT&T store on Rayford Road and leading police on a high-speed chase southbound on I-45.

Bledsoe is being held on a bond of $300,000. Bonds for the three others have not been set.

The crime comes less than a month after the robbery of another AT&T store just six miles away.

In July, four men robbed an AT&T store in Shenandoah at gun point, demanding phones and money. Police have not made any arrests in that case.

Brian Carlisle, assistant chief of the Shenandoah Police Department, said detectives from his department as well as the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes division have questioned the men Sunday but have not found a connection.

“It doesn’t look like they were involved in our AT&T store robbery a few weeks back,” he said.

The chase and subsequent arrest were a team effort by Shenandoah Police, the MCSO, Houston Police, the Department of Public Safety and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

On Sunday, MCSO responded to a 911 call received at 3:30 p.m. Three men had entered the store with handguns, demanding money and phones. Deputies gathered vehicle and descriptions of the four men. The four men left a stolen minivan near the scene of the crime and took to the highway in another stolen minivan.

Shenandoah police officers and constables with Montgomery County Precinct 3 spotted the stolen vehicle and followed it southbound on I-45 at Sawdust road. The pursuit ended when the driver of the stolen vehicle lost control and crashed at Rankin road and Ella Blvd. He tried to maneuver between two vehicles in adjacent lanes and struck them both, sending one into a third vehicle. None of the passengers were injured.

Thedford was apprehended on scene. The other three allegedly fled on foot, but were eventually arrested. During the foot chase, Dobbins was bitten by a Houston Police K-9 officer and was taken to the hospital for treatment.

The case is still under investigation. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office will release more information at a later time.